Author's infos

This is my first story written and posted. I checked spelling and grammar but may have missed some things. This is based loosely in White Wolf Games old World of Darkness for my inspiration and is just a start or the many ideas I have to continue on with. There is no actual sex in this chapter but the ending sets up for the start of the next chapter. Please let me know what you think of the story as a whole and of the writing style as well. Please be constructive not just this sucked or it was great. Let me know what you actually think. Thank you

If I told you Mages truly existed you’d probably laugh at me or think I was crazy. You’d want to lock me up and throw away the key if I told you they are around us here and now, not just legends of the past. Mages do exist, and they are here in the world with us today. I should know, I’m one of them. Now when I say Mage I sure the first though to come into your mind is the Harry Potter novels and movies or the old cartoons where you have people in old laboratories surrounded by strangely labeled jars like eye of newt and bat wings. Where that kind of magic is in the world and there are a few hedge wizards among you mortals, that’s not true Magick. My name is Andrew and I’m going to give you a glimpse into the reality of a true Mage.

I wasn’t born a mage, like everyone else in the world I was born mortal and had a pretty average childhood. I grew up in a small tourist town at the Jersey shore. I did well in school, but I always got in trouble for being a dreamer so my grades weren’t the greatest. Like any other kid I dreamed of being everything from an astronaut to soldier, Knight of the Round Table to any other thing I could imagine. I was about 11 when I first started to notice weird things about the world around me. There were times I knew for a fact that I wasn’t going to get home before dark and would therefore be grounded for a week and rushed to get home. Even though there was no way for me to get home in time I’d get in just in time. As a kid I just chalked it up to rushing and luck and forgot about it. Around the time I turned 13 my mind was becoming sharper than ever. I could read a book once and remember everything in it, and even understand college text books for classes my brothers and sister were having difficulty with.

I’m going to tell you a little about my family because it’s important that you understand a little more about me and them before I explain my Awakening. I came from a large family, my parents of course and 4 siblings. I had 2 brothers both older and 2 sisters, one older the other younger. At the time of my awakening my mother was a stay at home mom, she was one of the nicest people. She would help anyone who needed it however she could. My father was engineer with a government contractor. He never spoke of what he did at work, but you could tell he enjoyed it. My brother Matt and Jake were both in college. Matt was studying Medicine and Jake was working for a PHD in Computer Sciences. My older sister, Arica, was a senior in High School and one of the most popular girls. What set her apart is like our mother she was kind to everyone, and didn’t allow bullying or rudeness to people just because they were different. I was just past 16 and an avid reader, my favorite books were about time travel and other Sci-Fi themes. I was also a science geek, playing with Chemistry sets and learning anything I could get my hands on at that point. Then there was my younger sister, Jamie. I hated the idea of a younger brother or sister when my parents told us they were having another child. I was wrong about how I’d feel. Jaime was a living contradiction. She was a proper young lady when we went out to dinner or movies and a real tomboy when we were out playing in the woods or at the park. She was 8 when everything in my life changed forever.

Now that you have a short history about me and know some of what’s going on I’ll explain what an Awakening is and then we’ll get on with the story. For most people reality is what it is and they can’t do anything to change it. The truth about Reality is this, for the average person Reality is Consensual, meaning what the majority of the world believes is true. In the past people believed in Dragons and Wizards and Monsters. Nowadays most people don’t, science says they can’t exist so for the average person they don’t. Some mortals come to understand that there are more things in the world than science has explained. Some consider themselves lucky and others are haunted by the knowledge that they live in a world surrounded by monsters and knowing that they can do little except survive and pray the monsters don’t notice them. Mages learn of this greater reality, but they also learn that they have the power to change reality by force of will. Learning what you’re capable of as a Mage however comes after this Awakening. Every Mage reaches their awakening differently, for some it’s simply their mind coming to an epiphany realizing the greater truth of the world, for others it’s violent and mind shattering. I fell into the latter category.

It was 2 weeks after my 16th birthday when everything in my life change forever. It was the July 4th holiday and my family took a vacation together to celebrate my Birthday and the holiday together. Being that we lived in a tourist trap we left the area for the Holiday. We were staying at a hunting cabin in the mountains. We had been there four nights when my life changed forever. There had been a string of murders in Cheyenne’s newspapers when we passed through, 5 dead in as many weeks. The murders were ritualistic and the papers were reporting a serial killer. As we were heading a couple hundred miles north-west to the cabin and the murders were all listed in the city we figured we’d be safe. We couldn’t have been more wrong. It was after midnight when I was startled out of sleep by a noise downstairs in the cabin. I first thought it was one of my brothers grabbing a late snack but I could hear both of them snoring across the room. I slid quietly out of bed to check on the sound out of curiosity when I heard a loud thump and my mother scream from the stairway. My brothers both came awake and to their feet as I was running out of the room to see what was going on. What I saw as I came to the stairs is burned into my mind forever. My father was on the floor bleeding from his scalp with a cast iron pan on the floor beside him. I started to run down the steps to him when I heard my brothers and sisters reach the railing and gasp. That’s when I saw my mother and the man. The man was about 6’2” , had long dark black hair and eyes so pale blue they were looked white in the firelight. He was holding my mother by her hair with one hand, and the other was hidden by her body as her back was to us. I saw my mother being hurt and like any overconfident teenager I charged the man thinking I could make him release her. I hit him in the ribs with my shoulder and knocked him away. He tripped over the coffee table and was forced to release my mother. As he fell and she landed I noticed that the front of her nightgown was stained with blood and I moved to help her. There was a strange Glyph in blood on her chest as I helped her up and pushed her towards my Brothers who came to the bottom of the stairs when I rushed the guy. Unfortunately, in my haste to protect my mother I forgot about the guy. He grabbed me from behind and spun me to face him, grabbing onto my neck when he did so. I knew he was going to kill my entire family and that I lost my chance to stop him when I went to help my mother. I heard my brothers coming at him he picked me up by the neck on handed and figured they’d be able to stop him and save the others. I was afraid to die but glad my family would live. Then he looked directly into my eyes and his face changed. His pupils expanded to where they filled the entire eye except for a blood red rim around it. He waved the hand not holding me and my brothers were stopped in their tracks.

In a low almost whispered one that just had the sound of evil flowing through it, “You’re the one I sensed. I am going to have your power for myself.” He reached out toward my chest with his right hand and as it touched my chest I felt it passing through my skin as though it wasn’t there. I screamed as the pain became pure torture and forced my mind to accept that his hand was passing though me like I didn’t have skin and bone. As his hand reached my heart I felt an oily darkness slide through my body. I didn’t understand how I felt or knew any of this but it was there in my mind. I grasped for the knowledge that I knew I never read or studied and tried to pull it into me and fight the feeling or being smother by this oily darkness. It was then that I felt the third presence within me. This one was bright and strong, the darkness not able to cover it. It was joined to me in several places and I felt a power coming from it. It was fighting and pushing back the darkness within my body.
A strange voice sounded in my mind, “You must fight this darkness if you wish to live, accept what your mind is telling you is impossible and fight!!!!” and then the voice was silent as I felt the brightness and energy seeping away from me.

I realized that if I gave up, this man would kill me and then kill my family. I opened my eyes and stared into his. Choking as I said to him in a growl from his hand around my throat, “I will not let you hurt my family!!!” I reached deep into myself for that brightness and just pulled as much of it to me as I could. I shoved the power out of me at this monster, for he was no normal man. There was an intense flash of heat, light and sound as the world shook around and I blacked out. My last thought was that I failed to stop him.

It was hours later when I started to wake up, I could feel rain falling on me and assumed that it was all a dream and that my brothers pulled one of their pranks. As I opened my eyes and stood up, I saw that the Cabin’s upper floor and roof was gone and the walled were crumbling and splintered. There was charring on the edges all the way around. I realized that something had happened last night. I looked over towards the kitchen and could see me fathers leg sticking out from behind the counter. I ran over to him and checked for a pulse. He was alive but he was breathing shallow and there was still a lot of blood around his head. I grabbed the dish towel and wet it placing it against the wound. I checked the drawer for the CB to call for emergency services for him and looked around for the rest of my family. I found Matt still unconscious laying on the floor under where the stairs were. He was breathing normally but looked like he hit his head. I looked to where I last saw Jake and moved over to him. I could tell he was dead before I got to him, his head had be twisted around so far. I started to look for my mother and sisters. I found my mother and Arica quickly. My mother was slumped against the wall by the cabin’s door in a pool of blood. And Arica was outside the cabin with burns all over her body. It took me longer to find Jamie and she was the hardest for me. She had been thrown 50 yards from the cabin into the trees and rocks. When I found her almost every bone had been broken and I wouldn’t have recognized her except for the necklace she always wore, even when she slept. I carried her broken body back to the cabin to find Matt awake and taking care of our father. A few minutes later the Flight for Life helicopter landed outside of the cabin and a couple ranger vehicles arrived via the service roads. The Flight for Life people took my father right away while 1 of the medics stayed to take care of Matt and myself. I kept pushing the medic away as I searched for the man that started all of this. I found his body a tangles mess near the natural gas tank the cabin used for the fire and cooking. He looked as if someone had reached into his body and ripped him apart from the inside. I was numb, physically, mentally and emotionally as I wandered around the disaster that had taken most of my family away from me. When one of the medics approached me again I swung at him and yelled for him to stay away. The Cops that arrived while this was going on tackled me and the medic sedated me.

While I was unconscious, my mind kept replaying what happened that night in the cabin. I still didn’t understand why it happened but I knew that the world was far different than I knew. Somehow that monster had reached his hand through me like the flash wasn’t there and I somehow fought back. I had to know what happened. Every time it played through however I saw the bodies of my family and felt crushed. I awoke in a hospital bed; there was an officer by the door to the room. I pushed the call button for the nurse. An older woman came in past the officer. He made no move to stop her.

“I see you’re finally awake,” she stated with a forced smile. “You had us worried there for a while”

I tried to ask for water but my throat was very dry and soar, it came out sounding like growl. The older nurse turned to face me and I pointed to the pitcher of water. She picked up the cup with the flexi straw and moved it to my lips. “Sip the water slowly; you haven’t had anything to drink in the last few days because you wouldn’t wake. We put you on an IV for fluids and nutrition.”

I took a few sips of the water and let it sit in my mouth before swallowing it. I managed to whisper, “what’s the date?”

“It’s the evening of the 10th and you’ve been here since the 6th. You’ve been asleep the whole time. Now that you’re awake, I need to notify your doctor and the officer there needs to speak with you when you are ready,” the Nurse replied.

“Send him in please,” I stated hoarsely. She left and sent the officer in. When he came in he told me he needed to call the detectives in charge of the case in to see me. While I was waiting for the Detectives the Doctor came in. Her name tag said Dr. S. Grey, she was about 5’1” and 100lb. She had shoulder length read hair, and beautiful gray eyes. Dr. Grey looked to be in her early 20s no older than 24. She looked over my chart and rechecked my vitals. I asked after my father and Matt. She told me that my father had been flown directly to a trauma center and that Matt went to join him two day ago when I showed no sign of waking. She would contact the trauma center to let them now I was awake and to check their conditions for me.

The Detectives arrived about 15 minutes after the doctor and nurse had left and asked if they could get a statement from me about what happened. I told them what I remembered about hearing a noise and then my mother’s scream. Running downstairs to try and help and about body checking the guy. Then I told them about him grabbing me by the neck and picking up. After that I told them I didn’t remember much, it was all strange like a dream. That I didn’t know what happed as I passed out while he was holding me. I left out the strange sense of what was going on and his hand passing through me because I didn’t fully understand what happened and didn’t want to get locked up for being crazy. They told me the officer on the door was for my protection and privacy as the guy was the serial killer that had been in the papers in Cheyenne. They put the officer there in case he had an accomplice and to keep the media away. They explained that what I remembered of the next day was accurate. Stated that the explosion was caused by a lightning strike to the gas tank outside and were amazed that anyone had survived it according to the arson investigator. I was out of the hospital and going to the trauma center to my father and brother the next day. We were there for another week before my father was released and we returned home. My father became distant and withdrawn and Matt stopped talking to me and went back to school. He and my father would talk on the phone but he wouldn’t talk to me anymore. I noticed immediately that the world seemed more real to me, I could sense things before they happened sometimes, I always know the time. I went to the school counselor upon returning as they wanted to make sure I was ok to return to class. I went to the adult education center and arranged to complete my classes and graduated 3 months into the school year. After that I went to work full time and started to put money away. Over the next 18 months I put away around 10 thousand dollars. During this time the strange sense I had of the world kept getting stronger and I noticed more things about what happed around me. I noticed that when I drove I always hit green lights and that my mind and body were getting stronger. On my 18th birthday I drove away from my home. I left a letter to my father explaining that I couldn’t stay there any longer as he had completely withdrawn from me as well as Matt, and without my mother and the girls I couldn’t live there any longer. That was 3 years ago, since then I have found a teacher and learned about True Magick and have gained in power quickly. They say that power corrupts, and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. I won’t say I am totally incorruptible but the way I came about my power makes me think before I abuse it. I have used it to make enough money to live comfortable as an investment broker and I am moving to my new home. I drive into Las Vegas, NV on my 21st birthday and can’t wait to have some fun.

I see the signs for the Green Valley Ranch Casino as I’m driving down the freeway and decide that’s a nice enough place to stay. I pull of the freeway and head to the Valet. As I get out of my car and hand the keys to the valet I see a vision of beauty from the past. She is standing alone so I walk over to her, “Dr. Grey?” I ask.

She turns and looks me over, she slowly looks me up and down. I should probably describe myself now as a lot has changes since I started explaining everything and this is where you need an Idea of my appearance. I’m about 5’10” around 190lbs of toned muscle. I have short back hair and green eyes, like a dark emeralds. I dress fairly well; right now I am in black slacks and a forest green silk button down shirt. She finishes looking me over and says “I’m sorry, but how do you know me?”

“Granted, I was only 16 at the time, but I didn’t think I was that forgettable. You on the other hand have only gotten more beautiful. I’m Andrew Graves, you treated me after the incident at the cabin in the mountains.” I tell her. And the compliment wasn’t just idle. She was still only 5’1” but in her heels she came to about 5’7”. She still looked like she was in her early 20, time was being very kind to her. Her hair was now down to her waist and was more of a copper-red that practically shined. She looked to be about 110lbs now, and it showed in her curves. She had a heart shaped ass that was shown off to great advantage by the tall heals and the body hugging dress she was wearing. It was a deep green almost shading to black that ended at mid-thigh and showed off her silky legs. The neckline dipped in front to show off her incredible cleavage and B-cups that I couldn’t see before because of the loose scrubs she wore for work. She was a walking dream come true.

“Of course I remember you, it was such a tragedy what happened. I’m sorry again for your loss.” Was her response with a sad look.

“It’s alright, it was years ago and I’ve learned to live with it.”

She smiled and my heart started beating faster, “I didn’t recognize you because you have grown and changed since we last met, for the better as well. You’ve grown into quite a handsome man Mr. Graves.”

“Call me Andrew please, no need to be so formal Dr. Grey” I replied. As I spoke I infused my works with a little Magick to spark her desire for me, and to influence her to want to spend time with me.

“Certainly Andrew, and it’s Sindee. You aren’t my patient anymore and no need to be so formal.” She flushed as her desire started to heat up within her.

“Would you join me for dinner Sindee, I just arrived in town and would enjoy the company?” I didn’t infuse the words with anymore Magick; I just reached out to her mind to read the surface thoughts as I waited for her reply.

“I’d love to Andrew, let me just call my friends and let them know I’m changing my plans.” She stepped away and made a call on her Cell phone. As she thought about the call I say several women in her thoughts as she talked about changing plans. When she started talking about meeting an old friend by chance, images of her and I entwined and sweaty in a bed were passing through her mind.

As she put the phone away I stepped up to her and offered her my arm. As she put her arm through mine I told her, “we just need to go by the desk so that I can check in, then we’ll go get that meal.” We started up the escalator and headed for the front desk. “How long are you in Vegas for Sindee?”

“I’m actually living here now, moved down shortly meeting you. I came down here to do more good than I could in that small town hospital. How long are you planning to stay?”

“I’m an investment broker now and am moving here. That’s the reason I chose a Casino this far out. I figured I’d be closer to looking for real estate for my home and maybe an office.” She smiled upon hearing that. I got checked in quickly and had my bags sent up to the Suite I checked into while we went to get dinner. We spoke and got caught up on what we did over the last few years. During the talking I used a little more Magick to enhance her Sense of taste and the pleasure centers of the body using the aspect of Magick dealing with life. I only increased these senses a little for now but kept the connection opened between us so I could change the effects as the night went on. We finished the meal and I invited her to my suite for a night cap. We left the restaurant and headed for the elevators together.